Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait offers the audience an intimate perspective of the war torn city of Homs. Wiam Bedirxan and Ossama Mohammed have taken the first-hand footage shot by Syrian’s and activists to create a portrait that places the human before the political. Whilst the international mainstream news media continues to report on the violent events that have come to define our impression of Syria, their approach is one that instils a sense of anger in the film’s co-director Mohammed. Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait is a testament to cinema as a tool of free-expression, and one that embraces collaboration even in the worst of times.

In conversation with Aesthetica, Mohammed speaks of cinema as an impossible dream come reality, a tool that can confront media representation and the odyssey of Silvered Water that remains difficult to express.